Firm trade persists on Dalal Street

Key barometer gauges continued their firm trade in early afternoon session, on the back of strong gains in Healthcare, Realty and Capital Goods stocks amid expectations of encouraging third quarterly earnings, to be announced this week. The sentiments remained on positive note with report that credit growth after a long gap grew in double digits to 10.65 per cent at Rs 80,96,727 crore in the fortnight ended December 22, 2017 due to the base effect. Traders were also taking support from Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM), Bibek Debroy’s statement that India's advance GDP growth estimate of 6.5 percent for this fiscal shows reform measures taken by the government is yielding results and growth will accelerate to over 7 per cent in 2018-19. Besides, the domestic sentiment was buoyed due a firm trend in Asian market together with rupee appreciation. The broader indices also putting up huge amount of gains, with a rally around a percent. In scrip specific development, PSP Projects was up by over four percent on receiving work orders worth Rs 1776.41 crore from various clients for Industrial, Institutional, Government and Residential projects during Oct-Dec 2017.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, following yet more records on Wall Street. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 34342.06, up by 188.21 points or 0.55% after trading in a range of 34216.33 and 34374.85. There were 25 stocks advancing against 6 stocks declining on the index.
The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.89%, while Small cap index was up by 0.89%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Healthcare up by 1.38%, Realty up by 1.31%, Capital Goods up by 1.06%, IT up by 1.04% and Industrials up by 0.80%, while Telecom down by 2.27% was the sole losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 2.80%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.41%, Yes Bank up by 1.29%, Infosys up by 1.24% and Power Grid up by 1.14%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 3.72%, Asian Paints down by 0.41%, NTPC down by 0.23%, Adani Ports & SEZ down by 0.15% and HDFC Bank down by 0.14% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in major respite to companies facing corporate insolvency proceedings, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has relaxed norms for levy of Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) from the current financial year 2017-18. At present, under section 115JB of the Income-Tax Act, 1961, MAT is levied on book profit after deducting the amount of loss brought forward or unabsorbed depreciation, whichever is less.

The Income Tax Department has noted that with effect from assessment year 2018-19 (FY2017-18), in case of a company, against whom an application for corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) has been admitted by the Adjudicating Authority under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), 2016, the amount of total loss brought forward (including unabsorbed depreciation) shall be allowed to be reduced from the book profit for the purposes of levy of MAT under section 115JB of the Act. It pointed out that this decision has been taken to minimise the genuine hardships faced by such companies.

The CBDT further said that lenders of those companies, which have defaulted on loans, have been approaching the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code. It also said that appropriate legislative amendment in this regard will be made in due course and noted that the changes are likely to be brought in as part of the Finance Bill in the upcoming Budget to be presented on February 01. Besides, the number of cases being filed for CIRP under the IBC, has been rising. The RBI data indicated that as on November 2017, over 4,300 applications under CIRP were filed in the various benches of the NCLT.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10613.10, up by 54.25 points or 0.51% after trading in a range of 10588.55 and 10623.20. There were 39 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Sun Pharma up by 2.72%, Tech Mahindra up by 2.48%, Lupin up by 2.08%, BPCL up by 1.77% and Larsen & Toubro up by 1.40%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 3.75%, Asian Paints down by 0.57%, Vedanta down by 0.44%, Hindalco down by 0.34% and NTPC down by 0.31% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 6.68 points or 0.37% to 1,824.65, Jakarta Composite surged 7.5 points or 0.12% to 6,361.23, Shanghai Composite was up by 10.38 points or 0.31% to 3,402.13, KOSPI Index added 15.76 points or 0.63% to 2,513.28, Taiwan Weighted rose 35.95 points or 0.33% to 10,915.75.

On the flip side, Hang Seng was down by 20.72 points or 0.07% to 30,793.92.